Читать книгу Quest for Justice - Sean Wolfe Fay - Страница 11

The Adorian Village was unlike anything Stan had seen in Minecraft. The only man-made objects that he had seen up to that point were signs, chests and torches. In this village, everything appeared to be made of manufactured blocks.

The buildings were mainly made out of three materials; there were wooden planks stacked on top of each other, glass panes in the windows and stone that wasn’t as natural as the stone in the mine but rather put together in chunks, like a cobblestone street. Torches were everywhere, and the road was paved with gravel.

As the three players entered the village through a tall wooden gate between the two watchtowers, they saw a player walking towards them. He had brown hair, and he was wearing a red jacket over a white shirt with blue jeans. As he met the players, he introduced himself as Jayden10, and told the players to come with him to meet the mayor of the town. He then walked down the gravel street towards a large brick building; Stan, Charlie and Kat followed.

Going down the street, Stan saw players everywhere in the village. One player appeared to be exchanging two apples with another player for a piece of flint and a metal ring. Through a large window, Stan saw a whole group of players sitting around tables that had tools dangling from them. One of these players gave a final strike with a hammer to the object on his table and held it up for examination; it was a shiny metal pickaxe. To the right of the brick building was a large wooden building with a vast expanse of land behind it that held multiple types of animals as well as fields of wheat, pumpkins and watermelons. Stan had never before seen anything in Minecraft like what these players were doing. He was getting excited. The players appeared to be friendly – they waved to Stan and one of them even yelled “Nice dog!” to Kat.

“Here we are,” said Jayden, gesturing to the immense brick building, “Town Hall. Our mayor, Adoria, lives here. She is the founder of this village, and one of the highest-level people here. Come inside. She likes to meet all new arrivals.” And he walked inside.

The three players exchanged quick glances with one another and then went in after Jayden, leaving Rex sitting outside.

Stan was impressed. The corridor that they were in had a red carpet, and it was lined with electric lamp blocks that surely would have been on if the sun hadn’t been streaming in through a magnificent glass roof. The parts of the wall not covered by lamps had different paintings. A small one had a sunrise on it, a wide one – Charlie jumped when he saw it – had a Creeper’s face, and one painting depicting a game of Donkey Kong took up a whole wall. All of these paintings were heavily pixilated.

Jayden pushed a button at the end of the hall, and an iron door swung open. Inside, Stan could see a player, a girl judging by the plait of her black hair, sitting at a desk, writing in a book. She looked up at the sound of the opening door.

“Hello, Jayden. These are the new players, I assume?” Her voice was kind – it reminded Stan of his mother.

“Yes, Adoria, ma’am,” Jayden replied respectfully.

Adoria stood up. Stan saw that she was wearing a pink blouse and a red skirt.

“Well, then, welcome to the Adorian Village, new players. I am Adoria1, founder and mayor of this community. But please, call me Adoria. What are your names?”

Stan spoke up. “My name is Stan2012, but you can just call me Stan. This is KingCharles_XIV, or Charlie.” At this Charlie gave a polite nod, and Stan continued, “And this is KitKat783, or Kat.”

Kat said, “Pleased to meet you, ma’am.”

“Pleased to meet you too, players. Tell me, have you ever played Minecraft before?” inquired Adoria.

Stan and Charlie shook their heads, while Kat said, “I have, but on a different server, and I wasn’t there for long. I’m not much more experienced at this game than these two.” Stan and Charlie shot her incredulous looks but they backed down as they caught her eye.

Adoria nodded her head. “I understand. In that case, we in this village will be more than glad to help you learn how to play this game. We have a programme here that teaches you everything that you need to know about Minecraft in five days. Do you think you would be interested in that? The deal includes food and a temporary place to stay.”

Stan said, “It sounds good to me.”

“I’m game,” said Kat excitedly.

“Count the three of us in, then,” said Charlie. “But what kinds of things are you going to be showing us?”

“We have a group of people in this village dedicated to training new players. Each has different strengths that they will pass on to you. They will show you how to fight, craft, create and other such things.”

“So, it’s your job to train new players to prepare them for the server?” asked Kat.

“That’s right,” replied Jayden. “Almost every new player on this server came through our programme first, including most of the population of Element City.”

“What’s Element City?” asked Stan.

“The server’s capital,” said Adoria. “Element City is where most people go after they go through our programme. It’s situated on a huge open plain, surrounded by forest on all sides, and it has the greatest population of any settlement on this server. That’s where people build their houses and a bunch of crazy contraptions and structures and all that. At the centre of the city is Element Castle, where the King of this server presides over a council that makes the laws of the land.”

“Sounds like an interesting place. Do you think we should go there after we finish your programme?” asked Charlie.

“Um … yes, I don’t see why not,” replied Adoria. But her hesitation was not lost on Stan, and she didn’t meet Charlie’s eyes when she said this. Stan wondered what was wrong with Element City.

“So, is there a place for us to sleep?” asked Charlie, yawning. “I’m bushed; we haven’t slept yet, and we’ve been on the server for almost two days now!”

“Oh, by all means, go ahead!” said Adoria with a warm smile. “You’ll find some things for you in your rooms at the motel. Jayden, show these players to their rooms, please.”

“Yes, ma’am,” replied Jayden. “Follow me,” and he left the room. Stan, Charlie and Kat followed him out of the hall, picking Rex up where he’d waited by the door.

“So,” said Jayden as they left the building, “what kind of materials do you guys have so far?”

“Not much,” replied Charlie, looking in his inventory as he walked. “Just … a stack of dirt, five arrows, some string and some wood. You guys got anything else?” he asked as he looked to Kat and Stan.

“I’ve got a stone sword and pickaxe, some cobblestone and a few torches,” replied Kat. “Stan?”

“Oh, I’ve just got some coal, the pickaxe you gave me, and the book.”

“Come on, you guys! To survive in this game you’re gonna need better stuff than that!” Stan could tell that Jayden wasn’t being condescending – he was just ribbing them. Stan laughed with Jayden.

“I guess Stan and I owe you a thank you,” said Charlie. “Without those swords and the bread and the book, we definitely wouldn’t have even come close to making it here. We wouldn’t even have survived the first night with those Spiders!”

“Yeah … thanks a million,” agreed Stan, shuddering as he remembered fighting off the Spiders.

“Ah, don’t mention it,” replied Jayden with a shrug. “Besides, it wasn’t me who put those out there – it was my friend Sally. She’s the one who goes out there and replenishes the stock at the spawn point every week. Speaking of which, why did it take you guys two days to get here, anyway? It’s only a day’s journey.”

So Stan and Charlie told Jayden about the time that they had had getting to the village, about getting lost, and the Spiders, and running into Kat (who added to the story from that point on), and the mine, and the Creeper, and Mr A. Jayden seemed taken aback by the story of Mr A.

“You guys ran into a Griefer?” he asked sceptically. “But none of you are even level four yet! The best weapon you have is a moderately used stone sword! Why would anyone want to attack you?”

“Well, he was about to tell us in a melodramatic monologue, but I believe that that was the point when Kat told him, and I quote, ‘we couldn’t care less about your “oh, woe is me” story,’” replied Charlie, grinning at her.

“I regret nothing,” smirked Kat. “So, Jayden, what do you do around here? It must get pretty boring.”

Jayden shook his head. “No, not really. It’s fun to teach the new guys, like you. At the school, I teach axe fighting, and I help my brother on his farm. Plus, Adoria sends me on missions. I actually just got back from one a little while before you guys got here,” he added as the four finally arrived at the motel, a sprawling four-storey complex made of mainly wood planks. Stan saw a hole in the side of the building that was closest to him, next to several chests and a sign that said Construction in Progress.

“Well, here we are, home sweet home,” announced Jayden, gesturing to the building. “You guys are lucky. You’ll be bunking with me and my friends tonight. You’d ordinarily get your own rooms, but we’ve been so swamped with new players lately that there isn’t any room left for you in the main wing, and the expansion isn’t done yet. So, come with me.” He started to climb a ladder up to the roof.

“Wait!” cried Kat. “What about Rex?”

Jayden paused. “What? Oh, your dog. Just leave him there, but don’t tell him to sit. I think he’ll find his way up on his own.” He continued to climb.

Shrugging, Kat gave Rex a quick scratch between the ears and went up after Jayden, followed by Charlie and then Stan.

Jayden’s room was situated on top of the fourth-floor roof. It was a large room, big enough to comfortably hold eight players. Jayden flipped open the wooden door and was greeted by two distinct voices. The other three followed him in.

There were four beds sitting on the floor, two of them occupied with people. Like the rest of the town, the room was lit by torches, and there was a table with tools hanging from it that was identical to the one Stan had seen in the building in the village. Next to the table stood a stone oven with a fire lit in it. The walls were lined with paintings, and there was a large chest next to each bed. Next to the door was a box with a slot on top.

The two players in the beds looked unlike anybody Stan had seen in the game so far. One of them was dressed like the Skeletons that had made Stan’s first night in Minecraft so difficult. Stan would have panicked if it weren’t for the red hair on top of the player’s head, which distinguished him from a monster. The other player looked exactly like Stan did in the standard look for Minecraft, except that he was gold. His hair, skin, arms, body, and legs were completely golden. The only thing that told them that he wasn’t some sort of statue was his pair of green eyes.

“Yo, Jay! Good to have you back!” boomed the Skeleton. He had an unexpectedly deep voice.

“Good to be back, Archie! I tell you, that trip was absolute torture!”

“No,” said the gold one, in a disconnected voice. “Torture is being trapped in a pit of burning Netherrack that was set as a monster trap in the middle of Ender Desert, and only getting out because some guy happens to—”

“Enough, G, you’ve told us the story, like, a hundred times!” whined the Skeleton in an exasperated voice.

“Still, what could you have possibly done that’s worse than that?” the gold guy asked, now in a regular voice.

“Dude, didn’t you hear Adoria give me the assignment? I had to go to the nearest Mushroom Island and take back samples of the mushrooms there, and I also had to learn how to farm them from the tribe living there. She also made me lure two Mooshrooms away from the island and across the ocean using wheat and bring them all the way back here.”

“Ouch!” yelled the gold one. “That is pretty bad!”

“You’re telling me. The worst part was trading with the tribe there. I tell you, to be iffy about trading two Mooshrooms for four trees and bone meal when you don’t even have trees on your island! Still, you can’t say you’ve lived until you’ve killed a Spider Jockey while keeping two Mooshrooms interested in you with wheat. So, where’s Sally? She back yet?”

“Oh, she tried a new shortcut to get to the hill. She said that it would take her anywhere from half to double the normal time, she’s not sure. She said not to worry if she was late.”

“So, Jay, who are these guys anyway?” asked the Skeleton, pointing at Stan, Charlie and Kat, who had entered the room and were listening to the conversation with a mixture of confusion and admiration for these players who had clearly seen so much of the game.

“These are new players. The motel’s full today so they’re staying in here.”

“Excellent. I just love a good slumber party,” said a girl’s voice from behind them. They all turned around.

A girl was leaning against the doorframe. A plait of black hair ran down her back. She was wearing a green tank top and a black skirt. She was holding an iron sword with fresh Spider guts on the blade.

“Look what the ocelot dragged in! Sally’s back!”

“Glad you’re not dead, Sal.”

“What took you so long, girl?”

Sally gave a tired grin that suggested that she was dealing with little siblings who were entirely too happy to see her after a long day. “Do you remember when we used to greet each other with a nice ‘Hello’?” she asked.

“I’m sorry,” said the Skeleton. “Would you prefer that?”

“’Course not!” Sally laughed. “I’m just reminiscing. So, you gonna introduce me to these noobs?”

“If you insist,” Jayden said. “You’re lucky I hadn’t already introduced them to Archie and G, or I wouldn’t have wasted my breath on you,” he added good-naturedly. “This is Kat, Stan and Charlie,” he introduced them, pointing them each out in turn. “New guys, this is Archie” – the Skeleton nodded – “Goldman, aka G” – the golden guy nodded – “and Sally.” The girl nodded.

“’Sup, guys,” said G. “Cool dog, Kat.”

“What are you talking … what …?” Kat’s eyes widened as she looked behind her. Rex had just walked in the door and was walking over to Kat, who petted the dog, still looking amazed.

“How did Rex manage to get up the ladder?” she asked.

“Nobody knows …” replied Archie ominously.

They all stared at the dog for a moment and then looked away. None of them made eye contact with Rex for the rest of the night.

“So, anyway, why are these noobs staying in here?” asked Sally, frowning as she leaned against the doorframe.

“Could you please stop calling us noobs?” asked Stan. “It gets really annoying after a while.”

“Sorry, buddy, I paid my dues. I was a noob like you once, but then I took an arrow to the … heh, heh, heh, just kidding. My point is, people are gonna call you that until you pass, say, level ten. But until then, you’re just gonna have to put up with it. We all did,” she said, gesturing to herself, Jayden, G and Archie.

“Fine, I can accept other people calling me that,” said Stan, “but could you guys not, seeing as I have to live with you for a few days?”

“Hmmm …,” said Sally, pretending to think. “Uh, yeah, no, I think I will call you that. I probably wouldn’t if it didn’t annoy you so much though.” She shrugged.

Stan sighed. “Is she always like this?” he asked, turning to Archie.

He laughed. “Of course not! Sally is an absolute pleasure to live with. She’s not aggravating, obnoxious and condescending to us guys – whatever would give you that idea?”

Sally rolled her eyes. “Are you finished?”

Archie replied, “Well, as I glance at that sword in your hand, I think I’ll say yes?”

They all laughed.

“So, you guys starting the programme tomorrow?” asked G as Sally went to the chest next to one of the beds and put a sword and some watermelon in it.

“Apparently so. Jayden mentioned that you four teach the classes. Is that right?”

“Yep,” replied Sally as she sat down on her bed with her legs crossed. “I’m gonna teach you guys everything you need to know about sword fighting and crafting.”

“Yes, and when she says everything, that includes the how-to of disemboweling a Spider,” added G, and they all laughed again. “Anyway, I’ll teach you how to fight using a pickaxe, and everything you need to know about mining.”

“I myself,” boomed Archie, “will be instructing you on the precision art and skill of the launched projectile forged from the stone of gravel, the spindle of a tree and the coat of a bird. In other words, I’m teaching archery. Go figure,” he said, gesturing to his Skeleton costume.

“I’m teaching axe fighting and farming technique,” said Jayden. He reached into the chest next to his bed and pulled out an axe. But this wasn’t just any axe. The blade was created from diamond, and though the wooden handle was worn, the diamond still glinted in the light of the torches, sharp and deadly. Stan stared at it. It was the most impressive thing he had seen in the game so far.

“This is my most prized possession,” he said. “My brother gave it to me when I left his farm.”

“Stop showing off,” moaned G. “We can’t all have diamond tools,” and he opened his chest to get some food.

“Hold up! What’s that?” interjected Charlie, pointing to something in G’s chest.

“What, this thing?” he asked, and he pulled out something just as impressive as the diamond axe – a pickaxe, forged from solid gold.

“How can you say you have bad tools when you have that thing?” asked Kat, and Charlie and Stan nodded in agreement.

“What? Oh! That’s right, you don’t know, do you?” G laughed. “Well, it may look cool, but golden tools aren’t very practical at all. They break absurdly fast. They actually break faster than stuff made out of wood. The only upside to them is that they break stuff quickly, and even then a golden pickaxe can only break cobblestone and coal ore. I mostly just carry mine around for show, to go with my image.” G gestured to his golden body. As G sniggered at his own whimsy, Stan noticed Kat raise an eyebrow and give an amused chuckle.

“Well, I’m exhausted,” said Jayden, yawning. “That mission was awful, and I’m sure that you guys must be spent after all that you went through to get here.” The three new players nodded gratefully. “G, Sal, pull out the extra beds. Charlie, Kat, Stan, you guys should eat something before you go to bed. Try this.”

Jayden reached into his chest and pulled out two cooked steaks and a cooked pork chop. He handed a steak to Stan and Charlie, and the pork chop to Kat.

“Mmm,” said Kat, licking her lips when she’d finished, “that was so much better than the raw one.” Charlie rolled his eyes.

All fed, the seven players climbed into their beds, and five of them were out cold almost immediately. Stan was just about to fall asleep, too, when he heard a voice from behind him.

“You asleep, noob?”

Stan flipped over in his bed to face the one talking. Sally was crouching down next to his bed. “I’ll take that as a no, then,” she said.

Stan sat up. “Can I help you?” he asked.

Sally sat down next to him. “Yeah, you can,” she asked. “Is this your first time in Minecraft?”

Stan nodded.

“Have you ever played a game like it before?”

Stan looked at her. “How many games like Minecraft are there?” he asked.

“Not important.” She shrugged. “I guess my question is … do you feel like you’re something special?”

“Why, yes. I mean, that’s what my mummy tells me every night,” said Stan sarcastically. “‘Stan, no matter what those mean boys tell you, just remember that you’ll always be special to me.’ Is that what you mean?”

Sally giggled, which seemed oddly out of character to Stan. “You’re funny,” she said.

“Am I?” asked Stan, getting aggravated again. “Is that why you woke me up? So I could make you laugh? I’m exhausted.Please just let me sleep.”

And with that he flopped back down on his bed. Unfortunately, he had misjudged the exact position of the pillow and he ended up with his head on the floor, a painful throbbing in his skull from the impact.

As he sat up he could see Sally was not even trying to keep a straight face, just holding her mouth and trying not to burst out laughing and wake up the others. Stan couldn’t blame her. It must have looked pretty ridiculous. “Not a word,” he said as he sat back up. “So, what did you want to talk to me about?”

Sally eventually calmed down, and when she did, she rolled her eyes and said, “We’ll talk about it later. You need some sleep. G’night, noob.” And she stood up and lay down in her own bed.

Nice girl, thought Stan as he drifted into sleep. Annoying though.